Having jumped to Apple in 2014 after eight years as CEO, Burberry Angela Ahrendts talks with Fast Company’s Rick Tetzel about how Tim Cook is building on Apple’s culture.
“We just ended the year with the highest retention rates we’ve ever had—81%. Based on the feedback from Apple store employees, it is because they feel connected. They feel like one apple. They don’t feel like they’re just somebody working with customers. I don’t see them as wait staff. I see them as executives in the company touching the customers with a product that it took the team years to build. Somebody has to deliver it to the customer in a wonderful way.
I know now why this is one of the most successful companies on the planet: because the culture is so strong. The Pride, the protection, the values. The company was built to change people’s lives. That foundation, that service mentality, that drive to continue to change lives—that is a core value in the company. So you have this amazing culture that is underlying the mission, and how could you know that unless you are on the inside, because it is deeper than you could ever imagine.”
D.R. Whitson is a Time & Financial Freedom Coach with expertise in creating Self-Managed Businesses through his experience of founding over 20 “start-up” companies and as a founding member of the “John Maxwell Team,” with over six billion dollars in revenue and 3,500 associates.